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The Great Destroyer

July 6, 2009

And the comic is here, and the walls of text will return, believe you me. My brain is on sabbatical this week, working on some quite intensive text for an upcoming comic, so the mental skeleton crew i was left with decided to do a bit of a silent tale about…well, nothing really. But hey, at least it’s finished early for once. Anyway, i could find reasons to lengthily apologize for every comic i do so maybe i’ll just shut up now.

OH

With regard to last week’s discussion of criticism (in the comments section), if you have an hour or so here’s a good interview with a learned professor which touches on a few points that are very relevant indeed with regard to why any artist should keep critics close at hand. Avoiding Groupthink is the goal when you’re talking about online forums/comments/discussions/msn chats with your libertarian chainsaw militia pals, but the whole subject of self-justification in general is hugely important and I totally recommend the book on the subject by said professor. A huge piece of the mental puzzle. If yer got a website and yer not welcoming the critics then yer Doing It Wrong.

Speaking of mental, it’s mentally late, so goodnight!

Yeah,

Wintree Rownston

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This entry was posted on July 6, 2009 at 4:34 am and is filed under Subnormality.

I love this comic already, but because you didn’t portray Russians as evil commies, used Russian correctly, and captured the image of Russian metro system frighteningly well, you get about a thousand more liking-points from me.

Hooray! In celebration of this comic I hereby declare July 6th Dependance Day in celebration of my addiction to Tetris. It’s been a while but I do solemnly declare that before the day is out I will 1)break 300000, 2)conduct with authority and 3)refuse to be surprised at the Level 16 shift.

Oh, and it’s awesome that he’s a cube. His awkwardness/evil has always been so great that it stretches into the third dimension. All hail Linus!

Actually I think the most evil pieces in Tetris are the z and s pieces. At least those are the ones that usually mess me up.

Darn it, now I’ve got to play Tetris again. It’s like I used to be a smoker and someone just lit up in front of me. I used to have dreams where I was playing Tetris, thats how bad it got. Never get started kids, it’s like crack!

I never thought I would ever comment on your comics (though I read them regularly, and it really entertains a lot; personally I think you’re one of the greatest comic artists on the Net) but this time I just couldn’t stay silent. You see, I’m Russian so this piece seemed like a special present for me, especially considering that you’re not known or translated here so I’ve been always feeling like the only Russian who read you. Such a pleasant surprise, thanks!! And how the hell did you know about “demons”?! Huh?

I’m trying to learn the russian alphabet and, though I did not manage to read all of the text, i see that you’ve bothered to look up real words. Do you have knowledge of the russian language, or did you use a translator program? Either way, kudos to you!

My compliments. Your comics are damn well entertaining, not only do they crack me up but they also do have a meaning.
And this time, you managed to catch the spirit of Moscow’s metro.
Also, kudos for the attention to detail! (Only thing, as it’s already been pointed out, there are no “trains” signs, but the rest is pretty much correct!)

NOT ENOUGH WORDS! Don’t you know a comic is supposed to have words in every panel? Well, it’s true, because I say so, and I demand you give into my demands! And BTW, calling attention to the comic not having enough words doesn’t make it okay. I’m not a troll, bumblehead, because this is legitimate criticism, dinglebutt! Now go make comics that cater exactly to my every whim!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Very clever comic, Winston, and not just because it features one of the few computer games I can actually play worth a damn.

@Bob: Just in case you’re actually learning russian and didn’t just use google translate to create a cool-looking message: “ponravitsya” (“понравится”) is future, “I’ll like it”. What you’re trying to say is “ponravilos” (“понравилось”), “I (did) like it”.

Um, afraid I could use the joke explained, which I already hate to say. Is there supposed to be some game-changing domino in Tetris, a two-piecer, that this brown gentleman’s supposed to represent? Never seen that in my life and I can’t imagine how this would ruin everything, goddammit, it would actually seem pretty useful at first thought.

Otherwise, is he s’posed to just be the player? Why’s he so grumpy then?

@golerka: “He is supposed to be the square piece, and in situation like that, with the only space left for the long stick on the right, he would really ruin the game.”

No, you didn’t get it at all.

He’s not a square piece, he’s a cube. He only has one tile whereas normal tetris pieces have 4. If he was the square piece made of 4 smaller squares then he should be shaped like 4 cubes meaning his front to back dimension should be shortened. He’d be all squished and pancake-y.

He wouldn’t ruin the game. That’s the whole point. The people on the train have made sure to leave a vertical slot open so that no lines are eliminated. That’s why they’re all so scared. If he gets on the train then he’ll destroy himself and a little piece of many of the other passengers. People will be missing body parts and likely bleed to death. It would be very tragic.

Phrase “Ya budu ponravit’sya” (Я буду понравиться) is absurd; words “Ya budu” mean future tense, “I will” or “I will be”. “Ponravit’sya” (понравиться) at the same time is indefinite form, meaning “to be liked”, so it can’t be used in the same sentence.
May be you meant “ponravitsya” (понравится). The only difference between this words is the absence of the (I don’t know how is it called in english) “ь” (мягкий знак), and you shouldn’t be ashamed – it is one of the most often mistakes of native speakers😉.
But even in this case, “ponravitsya” (понравится) means “he/it/she will be liked [by someone]”, so the verb is correct, but the first part of the sentence isn’t: as I stated before, “Ya budu” means MY action, and the whole sentence, translated to english would be “I will be liked”, where “liked” is said not about you, but about some 3rd person, which is semantic error.

To make it correct, you should say “I will like it”. Unfortunately, there is no suitable translation of verb “to like” in russian, the closest one is “to love”, so you could theoretically say “ya polubl’u eto” (я полюблю это) which means “I will love it” – but it is very artificial phrase that is grammatically correct, but never really used. In reality, you should’ve used the same verb “ponravitsya” (to be liked by), and the best sentence in future tense would be “It will be liked by me” (now it sounds artificial in english😉 – “[eto] Mnye ponravitsya” ([это] мне понравится) (subject in this sentense is hidden). Exactly your first try😉

Khorosho, moi novyij drug. Bol’shoye vam spasibo. And basically, in English the myaki snak is known as “soft-sounding mark.” Unfortunately, (K sozheleniyu) I drive a Mac. Probably can do the same basic thing to fix the keyboard. Sorry to stink up the posts with unrelated conversation, but you got my brain working again. Your English is so much better than my plokhoj russkij.

I’ve been really bad at trying to learn languages in the past, but even then, the Cyrillic languages have been particularly alien to me. I feel like this thread has taught me a lot, and nothing at the same time.

Great comic Wintree! I spent many happy hours playing Tetris for DOS – the old version with the technicolor Russian-themed backgrounds and the cheesy Russian music. The 2×2 piece never messed me up though, it was always the “L” shaped pieces that finished me.

I don’t speak Russian, but I did not think “W” was a Cyrillic character, is this some way of writing the “sh” character? Is this very common in Russia?

2golergka: I found the keyboard guide and stickers where you said they’d be. Also got the Mac to write Cyrillic. Just won’t post to this site in Russian for some reason. Goes blank. I’m working on it. Bol’shoe vam spasibo.

Reminds me of that article when some catholic fanatic who has been assigned for reviewing computer games (and which one is the most catholic of course) give Tetris zero crosses (points) because “It is a communist mind-game which turns people into communist zombies who hate religion.
God, I’m a believer, but I seriously didn’t know to cry or laugh.